Red-Headed

It is a little self-indulgent of me but I think in the light of this I think it is a topic worth re-assessing about a phenomenon that has become ridiculed at best.

I originally contended that so called 'Alien Abductions' are some form of psi phenomena more related to sleep paralysis & astral projections than a real physical event. I have had many psychic experiences & I am not sceptical about the paranormal (see my column below), however I have serious reservations about the probability that advanced intelligent life has ever physically visited this planet, & seems to do so on a basis so regular you would think that NORAD would be in a perpetual state of DEF CON 1.

I am fairly convinced the whole phenomenon is related to a form of astral projection or dreaming consciousness. This does not rule out that non-human entities are actually making some contact with you, just that they may not be astronauts. In fact the entire phenomenon may be part of a quantum leap in the evolution of human consciousness as a whole.

I have discovered an odd phenomenon that has quite frankly disturbed me. I understand that people can be sensitive about certain topics. These can range from subjects such as religion or controversies surrounding abortion or contraception & the like, but I never imagined that I would get into protracted & often quite abusive arguments with people about the existence of flying saucers. I kid you not, I have been personally insulted (once by a moderator in fact) on more than one site by people I have been replying to in a thread, when I have professed my disbelief in the entire UFO phenomenon as a purely extraterrestrial one.

Perhaps I should make my position a bit more clear. I can be as argumentative as the next person, but I was stating a personal belief & was just wondering what anybody else thought on the topic. It seems to be that I am challenging some deeply held paradigm that brings out the worst in some people. This has actually quite shocked me. I am no stranger to odd or paranormal events. I have experienced these things since I was a child & am not particularly sceptical about the weird & the preternatural.

The plain fact of the matter is that there is no hard empirical evidence for the existence of sentient extraterrestrial life. Moreover there is not a smidgen of evidence that many of the reported & investigated third or fourth kind UFO encounters are a real physical phenomenon. Both J. Allen Hynek & Jacques Vallee who were pioneer investigators in the phenomena both eventually came to the same corollary. They believed that the whole phenomenon was probably preternatural; multi or ultra-dimensional to some degree. Not that it doesn't exist, but that it may have an alternative explanation.

Now, this is exactly my contention; the whole UFO phenomenon may have alternative explanations ranging from the prosaic to the disturbingly esoteric or exotic. I am not saying that there is absolutely no sentient life elsewhere in the galaxy or even the universe. It is just that there is no evidence for it, or for it ever having visited this planet. I think before we jump to the most obvious conclusion we should investigate other possibilities for the entire phenomenon. I don't think that it is asking for something completely ridiculous.

The question that we have to ask is: 'Why does this questioning of the possibility of extraterrestrial life produce such vexed & tendentious views'? I think there may be an answer to this. With the decline of organised religion amongst most of the population of the western world, alternative religions & belief systems have evolved. These have come about as the general population has become more educated & informed as a whole. But the deep innate need for human beings to believe in some ideal or something greater than themselves still prevails. The 'benevolent space brethren' has become a substitute for more traditional religious belief systems. Many people cannot accept the supernatural as a realistic paradigm so they have substituted a pseudo-scientific one instead. This tends towards the idea of the concept of benevolent, ancient & wise races who reside in distant star systems. These space 'brothers & sisters' are essentially utopian. They have no wars or conflicts & have a knowledge & technology possibly thousands of years ahead of us. They have solved the problems of poverty, war, ecological disaster etc. Eventually, like in Hollywood movies they will contact us & deliver us from our baser natures & 'save' us from our inevitable doom.

Now, I am not saying that this will never happen. It is just that I find it very difficult to believe. I am fairly positive that if there were aliens in our galaxy we would know about it by now. We would have been visited properly & a contact initiated or we would be able to 'listen in' on all of the electromagnetic chatter that must surely be detectable. Recent calculations for the emergence of any life in our Milky Way galaxy, regardless of sentience is a about a billion to one. There are a billion stars, give or take a dozen or two, in our galaxy. That means that we could just be that billion to one chance! There are, of course billions of other galaxies, all full of billions of stars. Unfortunately they are too distant to be of any real consideration to us.

Now, this brings me back to my original argument. Why can't the entire phenomenon be looked at with an alternative explanation. The abduction experiences many people report may be some form of 'out of body' experience. Some people claim they have had bruises & marks left on them by these 'extraterrestrials'. I had a bruise with finger marks left on my back once by an entity that slapped me on the back in broad daylight in a Public House (I was not inebriated either) with a reputation for being haunted. I actually have witnesses to this who could not understand what I was talking about when I complained about being 'slapped'. The bruises & finger impressions were real enough. Many of the staff later told me that they had had similar events happen to them. This is not the first time events such as these or similar have happened to me either. Many people have reported such instances or events. I am not always totally certain what has actually happened to me, but I don't come to a uniquely extraterrestrial conclusion. Although, I must admit my assumptions are probably along paranormal lines.

My whole point is that belief in anything that can't be empirically proved is essentially exactly what it states. It is a belief system. I have no problems with that. I think you should be able to believe in whatever you like. Even if it is in the Easter bunny! There is no evidence whatsoever for intelligent sentient extraterrestrial life. But to expostulate this view is some sort of heresy. I can see parallels with the ontological arguments for & against deity with this. The sheer fact of the matter is that we may be the only sentient & self-aware intelligent life form in the entire cosmos. It would make us a very lonely species & I hope it isn't true. Unless of course the aliens were more like H.G. Wells' Martians, then I am not too sure about meeting them. However, I should be able to disbelieve in extraterrestrial intelligences if I so choose to do so without being insulted for my beliefs (or lack of them).


Veronica Cartwright: "Well why not a space flower? Why do we always expect metal ships?"

Jeff Goldblum: "I've NEVER expected metal ships."

~ Invasion of the Body Snatchers, United Artists 1978